


Rise and Shine

by perniciousLizard



Series: Rinse and Reset [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post-Reset, Undertale Saves and Resets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 03:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8311906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: How would it go, if there was a reset while Sans and Grillby were together?  Would they remember?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is not connected to anything. I just felt like writing it.

“SANS!”  A gloved fist pounded at Sans’ bedroom door.  "THIS IS THE LAST TIME I AM CALLING YOU!  GET YOUR LAZY BONES OUT OF BED AND GET TO WORK!"  Papyrus paused, for a second, and knocked again, louder.  "YOU HAVE MADE ME A LIAR, BECAUSE THAT TURNED OUT TO NOT BE THE LAST TIME, BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL NOT AWAKE.”  

Sans groaned and stepped out of bed.  He felt an odd shock when he touched the ground, like he expected the fall to be longer, and sat up.

_oh no._

What day was it?  He was dizzy and disoriented.  Maybe if he said he was sick, Papyrus would buy it and leave him alone.  Yeah, right.  Papyrus didn’t leave things alone.  

Had there been a reset?  Everything in his room looked _wrong_ to him, like there was a part of him that expected to wake up somewhere else.  Maybe on the surface.  God.  Whoever was doing this was a real jerk.  

Well, he’d deal with it.  He went and opened the door before Papyrus accidentally put a fist through it.  He bet his brother had been having a real good time up there, too.  He probably had tons of friends and got to drive around in a car and everything.  Maybe that’s why he seemed a little angrier than normal.  A part of him felt the same way Sans did – like he was supposed to be somewhere else – and he was reacting to that.  

“‘morning, bro,” Sans said.  

“FINALLY!  GOOD MORNING, BROTHER, BUT YOU NEED TO GET AN ALARM CLOCK AND ACTUALLY LISTEN TO IT.”  

“already got one.”  A normal clock he’d just shut off.  Papyrus would keep going forever.  

He wanted to slip away to Grillby’s for breakfast, but Papyrus kept an eye socket on him.  He wondered if the woman behind the Ruins door was around.  A couple bad jokes would cheer him up.  

He tried not to think too much about anything.  It’d just get him down.  He just had to ride this out.  Just keep riding it out, forever, getting what he could out of the little moments with his brother and the old lady and his pals at Grillby’s.  When he kept everything scaled down and forgot about anything bigger, he did okay.  

He took a minute to sneak away back home and get a look at his notes.  There was a picture, there, of everyone posing with a human kid he’d never seen before.  No, they _were_ familiar, but there was no way he’d met them.  Were they the cause of this?  

Eh, like it mattered.  He had a few hours, at the very least, before he really had to do anything.  As far as he could tell, this anomaly started from the Ruins and it took a little while to wind its way out.  

He went to Grillby’s.  

He took one step in the door and got knocked in the ribs with a sense that something was completely wrong.  His soul was about to vibrate out of his chest, but he had no idea why.  

He greeted all the regulars who said hello to him and went up to his seat.  Grillby turned towards him to take his order.  

They both went still.  Grillby didn’t say a word.  

Sans _knew_ him.  Of course he knew him.  He and Grillby had known each other for years.  They’d had some laughs.  But, now he just looked at him and something in him _ached_.  

“Sans?”

“Grillbz’s asking you what you want,” Red Bird said.  

“uh.”  He couldn’t think about this.  Whatever this was about, it hurt too much.  "shoot.  forgot something.  can i grab a burg to go?"

Grillby stared at him.  

"ok.  no takeout.”  He shrugged.  "never mind, pal.  later, guys."

He took his time heading out the door,  but went straight from there to his sentry station.  What the hell was that?  Grillby must have died, or something.  Sans wasn’t going to push at it.  

He visited the ruins, but the human stayed inside.  He passed the whole day, traveling from sentry station to sentry station, with only one real deviation from his usual routine.  He didn’t go back to Grillby’s.  It hurt to think too much, so he didn’t.  He made hot dogs and joked around with Papyrus.  

It was a pretty nice day, if he didn’t concentrate on the weird parts.  He went home and tried to sleep.  

Grillby’s expression was burned into Sans’ memory.  He had felt something was off-kilter, too.  Sans needed to go back and pretend everything was normal, or his old friend would figure out something was up.  Whatever feeling Grillby had gotten wouldn’t just get pushed aside and forgotten, like it was supposed to.  

Sleep won out, like it always did, and he woke up to the usual racket.  Papyrus tried to beat his door down and yell him awake.  

"hey,” Sans said.  "what’d happen if for breakfast i got some yeast and some shoe polish?“  He spoke through the closed door.  

"IT WOULD STILL BE A HEALTHIER MEAL THAN THE USUAL GREASY SLOP YOU EAT?”

“i’d _rise_ and _shine_.”  

“AUGH! I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU ACTUALLY DO THAT FOR ONCE!  NOT POISON YOURSELF, BUT BE UP AND READY TO GO TO WORK ON TIME.”  

It was another uneventful day.  The anomaly was taking its time, for whatever reason.  Sans needed to go back to Grillby’s.  He didn’t.

The third day, he decided if he ran into one of the regulars, he’d tell them Papyrus was on a health kick.  He’d say he was hoping someone would sneak by his station with some fries.  

He hung around Snowdin, looking for a patsy he could run into by the Shop.  It turned out that he was the real sucker, though, because he turned a corner and Grillby was there and looking right at him.  He couldn’t sneak away because he’d already been seen.  

“oh.  hey.”  

“Sans.”  Grillby stepped towards him.  

“i was about to stop by, but i guess if i go now there’s no one to cook for me,” Sans said.  He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried not to back away like there was something wrong.  

“Are you…”  Grillby trailed off.  He looked lost.  

“it’s been a weird couple days,” Sans said.  He should just leave it, but he didn’t like seeing Grillby so confused.  

He nodded.  There was relief in his expression, now that he was sure he wasn’t the only one who had noticed.  

“who knows what’s up?”  He shrugged.  "let’s just…“  He trailed off.  Grillby was coming closer.  

Grillby stopped directly in front of him.  He was examining Sans, giving him a slow once-over, like he was trying to figure out what was going on by reading it off of him.  "……do you…?"

"uh.  hey there.”  Sans wanted to back away and get out of there.  He also wanted to hear what Grillby was trying to say.  It took less effort to stay, so that’s what he did.  

Grillby rested his hand over his own chest.  Right over his soul.  

Sans closed his eyes.  His own soul was pulsing strangely, off rhythm.  He wondered if that was what Grillby was feeling.  He had to get out of there.  He should have run off.

“Sans.”  The heat from Grillby’s body, this close, was familiar.  It was home.  

_oh no._

“I…I’m sorry,” Grillby said.  

Sans looked up, confused.  What was he apologizing for?  

Grillby bent down and kissed him, by the mouth.  His hand found Sans’ back.  Sans relaxed, and he sensed Grillby relaxing, too.  It should’ve been a first kiss, but whatever it was, it wasn’t that.  

And then Grillby drew away.  "I’m sorry," he said, again.  He took a step back.  

"uh.  i…gotta go.”

“…sorry,” he said, miserably.

“not a big deal,” Sans said, automatic, his chest throbbing like it was about to crack open.  

They both fled.  

–

Sans spent most of the next day not thinking about it.  He joked around with Papyrus and took his breaks somewhere other than Grillby’s.  

He sat down on his bed that night and immediately got up again.  He was going to do Grillby a favor.  He was going to stop at the bar, order some food, and act like everything was normal.  Grillby probably felt guilty or weird about what happened, and Sans showing up would let him know he meant it when he said it wasn’t a big deal.

Maybe he was doing Grillby a favor.  Maybe he just missed the burgers.  There weren’t that many good places to eat in Snowdin.  

Grillby was surprised to see him, but didn’t say anything.  He put together Sans’ order, and everyone else treated him the same as they always did.  It was comfortable.  He missed joking around with the other regulars.  

“Sans.”  Grillby leaned on the bar in front of him.  

“yeah?”

“…would you stick around after closing?  I want to ask you something.”

“Sounds like it’s been a while since someone paid their tab,” Red Bird said.  

That drew some drunken jeers from the rest of the room.  

“sounds like i’m in _hot water,_ ” Sans said.  

They groaned.  

Sans shrugged and agreed to stick around.  He thought Grillby wanted to apologize again, and if Sans could accept it without running for it, this time, maybe they could both move on.  He wanted to get to keep coming back.  

The bar cleared out, eventually, and Grillby turned around the open sign.

“sorry i ran off after that.  it was kind of a weird situation, you know?  but i’m over it,” Sans said, when Grillby didn’t say anything.  

“Sans…could we talk about this upstairs?”  

Sans’ hand clenched, involuntarily, on the edge of his bar seat.  "uh. you live up there, right?"  He had never been up there before. As far as he knew.  

"Yes.”   

“why not stay down here?”

“It’s more comfortable.”  

Yeah right.  But Sans hopped down.  "ok.  sure.  let’s see your place."

Neither of them had a lot to say on the trek up.  The stairs smelled heavily of smoke and greasy food, the odors sticking to the walls in such a narrow, cramped space.  

The apartment was the whole top half of the restaurant.  Sans sat down on a couch when Grillby gestured at it.  

"…a drink?"

"sure.”

Grillby set a six pack on the table in front of the couch and Sans grabbed a can.

“thanks.”

Grillby nodded.  He didn’t say anything, and he didn’t sit down.  The awkward silence stretched out.  

“i’m trying to think of an ice breaker, but you’d be better at that,” Sans said.  Grillby didn’t react, so he kept going.  "wait, i got one."

He shook his head, stopping him before he had a chance to get started.  "Sans…”

“yeah?”  He tensed.  "what’s up."

"A few days ago…”  He looked away.  "Why did I wake up in love with you?"

Sans didn’t have anything to say to that.  He stared at his beer, trying not to think about anything.  

"Did you feel…anything like that?”  

He could say no.  Make Grillby feel worse, but put a stop to this.  “yeah.”  He didn’t want to hurt him.  "something like that."

After a painful minute of silence, Grillby sat down next to him.  "Why?”

Sans shrugged.  "beats me."  He took a sip out of the can. "heh.  maybe we dated in a past life or something.  who knows?”

“It’s just…strange.”  

“sure is.”  

“…I miss you.”  

Sans turned and got a good look at him.  Now that it was out, what he wanted to say, Grillby burned calm and steady.  

“yeah,” Sans said.  

Grillby reached out and touched Sans’ chest.  

“weird how you can miss someone who’s always around.”  

“Sans?”

“yeah?”

“Can I kiss you?”  

Sans nodded.  The ache in his chest seemed to fade when Grillby touched him.  

–

The next morning, a human walked out from the Ruins.  


End file.
